A Pro for the People

John (not his real name) worked for Staff Pro from the mid to late '90s.

"My favorite place to work was at Hospitality Point," he says. "During the Summer Pops, there was gnarly amounts of booze that you would find.... You would look at someone and think, 'I don't need to touch this guy,' then you think, 'Wait a second...' and ask him to open up his jacket. He would have a big bottle of liquor.... If the supervisor was around, I couldn't let stuff like that fly. But if the supervisor wasn't around, then it was cool. Whatever....

"We would give [booze smugglers] the option of taking [the bottle] back to their car.... If no one was around, I'd take the bottles and throw them in a bush and pick it up later if, hopefully, no one saw it." Music fans had a knack for discovering John's stashed bottles.

"[Free booze] was cool, but the funnest part about that job was making money off people. I would card people for I.D.s and some guy might say, 'Ah, dude, my girlfriend is only 20, but I'll give you $10 or $20 if you let us in.' Fuck, yeah!

"I used to take money working the parking lot, too.... People would roll up and say, 'I can't find any parking....' They'd say, 'Look, I'll give you $10 or $20 if you let me park right there and you didn't even see me.'"

John says low wages motivated him to accept the extra cash.

"Part-time supervisors make the 'big money' -- $8 an hour.... I would usually make an extra $50 and $70 a night.... [Staff Pro] didn't pay shit, so I was out to make some money on my own....

"You want to hear the funniest story? I was working backstage at the Barney on Ice [show] at the Sports Arena. I think it's a four-hour show, so they had to have two Barneys because one guy can't be in that goddamn hot outfit all night. The first guy gets done doing his part for the first half of the show. He takes off his big ol' fucking head and sits down, and he says, 'Goddamn it. I need a drink.' One of the assistants -- it was a girl -- and the guy was only 19 or 20.... That lady says, 'Hold on, hold on. Do you want a water or Diet Coke?'

"He tells her, 'I need a real drink.' He looked at her like he wanted to strangle that chick. 'I need a real drink!' he screamed. Here's Barney screaming, 'Goddamn, I need a drink!'"